b: an imaginatively perceptive and articulate individual especially skilled in banter or persiflage

Additionally, insult humor only works when delivered with genuine affection. (Please note I said “affection,” not “agreement” and pay very close attention to the adjective.) When it comes with a mean spirit it is just ugly, tasteless, and not funny.

Oh, and one other thing – profanity is not a punch line and laughter can be a way to disguise discomfort at tastelessness.

I am not a prude. I can still, decades later, recite George Carlin’s bits on the s*word and the “Seven words you can never say on television” (which you now can) from heart. They were actually witty. I do not automatically find attempts at humor containing profanity or referencing the unmentionable unfunny, but if you are going to use them you need to build the joke around them, not use them for the cheap laugh.